the oh so quiet show

Where do you go to piss off the person in your life that hates ring tones and websites with embedded music and animated backgrounds?

RING TONE DANCER!!!

(I warned you, right?)

Lots of weird stuff at Contagious Media Showdown.

I guess a lot of music related things in NJ take place; I just don’t care most of the time. The Appel Farm Arts & Music Festival caught my eye until I found out that it’s about 150 miles away from my house. NJ is a small state but not small enough. Doh. It sounds like a good deal though; student tickets cost $29 and for that you get to see all these people perform. I heard about the festival because Rufus Wainwright is playing at it, but I’ve seen him play something like five times already. Besides that, it’s on June 4th and that’s the same day as Sondre Lerche’s free Brooklyn show. So you know where I’ll be on June 4th…

On a totally unrelated note, here’s another cute, “why do I need this” accessory for your iPod: iGuy. I don’t know about you but I only use my iPod when I go out, for which iGuy wouldn’t be very useful. However, iGuy is your iPods new best friend and my iPod cries at night for lack of companionship. Or something. (I have no accessories for my iPod and my mum thinks that’s nuts; “Your iPod has scratches all over it! You suck!” Well, I actually damaged my iPod in a way that any kind of casing would have failed to save it from (through the earphone jack–oh damn, double parentheses), so ha ha! …wait, I do suck.)

I just noticed that Feist is playing at Bowery Ballroom on June 25th. Am I just slow? Hm. This post is just a note to myself to…maybe go to that concert. Except I don’t know anyone who particularly likes Feist. So maybe not.

[sigh]

On a totally different note, if you live in Norway then I dislike you more so than people who live in other places because Magnet is playing lots of free shows there starting next week and I just realized his new album also comes out next week and I still haven’t gotten it. It would make me slighly happier if I did have it. Slightly. Materialistic things. Yeah.

Soft is a Brooklyn based band that does sound kind of…soft. Maybe. Soft is also a way to describe my stuffed animal penguin that’s staring at me right now. My penguin can’t play music though so there aren’t any other similarities to speak of.

I’m so bad at describing music that I had to talk about my penguin. But here I go. …… [tumbleweed rolls by]…upon my first listen, I thought “This reminds me of something. I like it.” 20+ listens later, I have absolutely no idea who Soft reminds me of and it’s kind of bothering me. I’ve read the description “dream pop”, which is appropriate. I’d also describe them as sounding British/un-American, a sweeping generalization but…hey, I’m allowed to do that and I mean it in a good way. Here’s their latest single, a floaty song (yes, floaty):

Soft - Droppin’

You like the song, right? You should. Wait, you didn’t download the song yet? What’s wrong with you, just click it! You’ll like their other songs too. Like this one:

Soft - You Make Me Wanna Die

Why do you like the song? Because…I said so. And I like the title (because it applies to so many people, yes?). I may have faulty reasoning, but you can’t do anything about it and I bet you liked the songs.

Crackers United has more info about the band.

I feel so almighty and powerful knowing I can do useless time-wasting crap this:

[If you can’t tell, this is Beck’s Guero and not…penguin cakes.]

I will have much fun abusing Amazon images from now on because my life is just that empty. For god’s sake, it’s almost 4:30 AM.

I’m not insane. Really.

I am permanently attached to my computer at the moment. My laptop is draining the humanity out of me and replacing it with mechanical…goo. Soon I will talk in ones and zeros and emit random bleep-bloops.

Until then, I’ll just browser around music-related websites. BC Camplight’s homepage now displays new album art: a monolithic squirrel hovering over a dead guy bleeding from the head/neck as helicopters hover around the faraway mountains because they’re sure as hell not going to get anywhere near the squirrel, unless my sense of perspective is off and the helicopters are just really small and are about to ram into the squirrel’s head.

(Uhh…I swear that I got enough sleep last night.)

So anyway, that’s cool. Squirrels. Music. The combination of the two. I enjoy any excuse to talk about squirrels.

I’m not in a particularly good mood.

This song is appropriate to listen to when I’m happy or sad. I don’t know why. If you don’t like it, you suck. In my opinion. Not that my opinion matters much:

Even Johansen - Quiet and Still [removed]

I first heard this song almost four years ago. …god, now I feel old.

Spice Girls Reunite [via metafilter].

Why am I mentioning this? Are you telling me that you never liked the Spice Girls?

…erm. Well. I used to listen to them but I wouldn’t exactly want them to reunite. I kind of like knowing that the Spice Girls and other pop-artists of years past remain in the past. I don’t like the sound of this reuniting-whatnot. I became unsettled when I heard that the Backstreet Boys were touring again.

I think my listening to the Spice Girls and BSB was a result of peer pressure. Oh yes, peer pressure either get you to do drugs or listen to top-40 artists. I even used to listen to Aqua. AQUA! God, they were scary. And when I say “used to”, I mean this all happened seven or so years ago, or roughly an eon in my life as far as music is concerned.

Very bad things should happen to whoever thought of the idea to get the Spice Girls back together (for a “large paycheck”).

I’m too lazy to go to concerts when I have to get someone to drive me to the bus station (I can drive but I can’t park there because I’m not a resident of that town, blast) and then I have to get on a bus for at least an hour and then I have to take a subway and then…at some point I get to the venue. But it’s not that hard. I’M JUST LAZY.

Should I go to Rilo Kiley this Friday, even though I’m not really a fan and it costs $18? Probably not. Cos I’m lazy. I need more excuses to get out of NJ though.

Thank god for the free Sondre Lerche performance, giving me a sliver of joy to look forward to since the rest of my life has been consumed by sitting on my bum working on websites and wheezing because my lungs hate me. I will go to Brooklyn for free Sondre! Mic.no a nice article about the awesomeness of Sondre [via It’s a trap!].

I was mildly frightened last week when my house received the latest issues of Blender and Entertainment Weekly with Coldplay staring at me from both covers. I don’t mind Coldplay, but I’m assuming that that was just the beginning of magazine cover assult-ness. Actually, the chorus of “The Speed of Sound” has been stuck in my head and I kind of hate that. The rest of the song didn’t feel like embedding itself in my brain meats. Super. I was curious enough to see them play so I watched Saturday Night Live–wow, it still sucks even though I haven’t watched it in more than a year (I liked Coldplay’s performance though). Or I’m out of the loop as to what constitutes as comedy. From what I know about SNL (not a whole lot, I admit), they go through loads of ideas for skits; how do they end up with so much painfully un-funny material?

…that wasn’t really music related. Thus, I go back to not watching any TV unless something music related is on. Oh, I technically caught SNL when Beck was on but it was during the credits. That doesn’t count.

Mmmm Kings of Convenience on KCRW mmmm better than pancakes mmm. Better because if I eat too many pancakes I end up getting sick of them but listening to too much Kings of Convenience is just…a good thing. [via I Think So]

There are a bunch of new videos at Emiliana Torrini’s website. I like the video for Heartstopper (from her latest album Fisherman’s Woman, which I haven’t gotten yet because I suck) in particular. It’s got…puppets! And. Yeah. Puppets. If there’s one thing the world could use more of, it’s puppets. Watch it: Hi | Lo. Watch the interview video as well, because it’s funny and Emiliana extrudes cuteness. [via it’s a trap!]

On an unrelated note, mp3s sounds like poop (choppy) when I play them on iTunes using my new laptop. Songs work fine in Windows Media Player. So. iTunes. WHAT HAPPENED? WHY DO YOU CRAP UP MY SONGS? Help? Maybe it’s just me. Nevermind, this helped.

No one passed this baton to me because I have no friends, but WHATEVER! I’ll just steal it. I found it from a few bloggers’ pages, ironically not from any music bloggers (Maki, Jon Hicks, Dan Cederholm and probably others…okay, while I was TYPING THIS it sprung up again at the wayblur).

Total volume of music files on my computer:

You’re going to be disappointed by this: 16.1 GB. I have lots of CDs that I haven’t ripped onto my computer but I don’t see the point since at no one time will I actually listen to 16.1 GB of music (but I like knowing it’s there).

The last CD I bought was:

Beck’s Guero, the DVD edition. The DVD wasn’t that interesting in my opinion but it comes with a cool book. And it’s Beck. So. Oh, but at the same time I bought The Decemberists’ Picaresque and The Innocence Mission’s Christ Is My Hope, so I guess I last bought three CDs. This was weeks ago and I don’t usually buy a lot of CDs…kind of.

Song playing right now:

Beck - Broken Drum (Boards of Canada remix)

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

• Even Johansen - Quiet & Still: I’m going to write an entry about this song since I like it so much. I’m not afraid to be overly judgemental and say if you don’t like it, you suck. I don’t know why I like it so much; I just do.
• The Innocence Mission - One For Sorrow, Two For Joy: One of the most beautiful songs ever. Yes. I’m not sure where this song comes from but I came across some nursery rhymes and this song shares its title with one of them. That makes me happy.
• Radiohead- Let Down: I’m just like every other Radiohead fan.
• Beck - Hollow Log: I can’t explain this one. It’s a very short, simple song about “sitting on a hollow log”…and other stuff.
• Plone - Bibi Plone: I wanted to pick a Bjork song but I couldn’t think of just one. So you get Plone. Listening to this song is like being in some weird underwater kiddie-land bursting with bright oversaturated colors and jellyfish. It’s a weird song, yes.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:

Am I allowed to pass this to other people when no one passed it to me? Er. Hm. I don’t think I even have five good blogger friends, or five that read this:

• Diana Yee
• Luis Katigbak
• Nik Mercer
• Michael Mahle
• Allie V [I’m not going to try and write your whole name]

How’s that for non-music related? Er. Yay! Hooray for Norway and its constitution.

Okay, this is music and Norway related: Sondre Lerche is playing a free show at Sound Fix Records on June 4th at 4 PM. Let’s go! Someone come along with me! Er. Yeah.

I have more to say. Later.

…Okay, now: The Innocence Mission are still awesome. Magical, maybe. Anyone else get that feeling? Yup.

Amusement Parks On Fire is Filter US Recordings’ second import of non-American music you may not have heard of. Or I haven’t heard of. As usual, I’d rather not describe the music or attempt to do it in a well thought out manner, so I’ll just say that I really like it to the point that it surprised me and I don’t know why. The album is a mix of loud layered guitar type stuff and then peaceful Sigur Ros-esque songs. Like a dark chocolate multi-layered cake with lots of soft, creamy vanilla icing in between. Mm, icing…oh crap, I talked about food. Someone has to keep me from doing that.

The nice thing about the album is that each song flows into the next. Kind of. Um. Listen to these songs in this order:

Amusement Parks On Fire - 23 Jewels [removed]
Amusement Parks On Fire - Venus In Cancer [removed]

…you better like it. Or deathy.

“Oh my god,” said my friend, Lee Anne, while picking my camera off the table.

“Huh?” We (including my mum) were eating lunch in the food court at Mitsuwa in New Jersey (because, alas, I am a New Jerseyer and not a New Yorker) before having to go to LaGuardia Airport to drop off Lee Anne, who was visiting NYC for a few days.

I looked around and didn’t see much besides Asian people. Nothing worth an “oh my god” and a photo, at least. Hey, a non-Asian person!…nah, that doesn’t count.

“It’s Bjork.”

“…huh? What?” I stood up. Yup, it was her, Matthew Barney, and their daughter. …wait, what?

Lee Anne took a blurry photo but we felt very strange about it. The last thing we wanted to do was play paparazzi. Lee Anne walked around the checkout to where she saw Bjork and her daughter go to and stood eerily close by; even I felt uncomfortable just watching them from afar. (By the way, I’m a moderate Bjork fan. I say “moderate” because I’m not flamingly obsessed but I have her major albums, some singles, some DVDs, some books, too many magazines, and I went to one concert. Is that moderate?)

And that was it. Following her was bad enough; we surely weren’t going to say anything. I almost couldn’t breathe when her daughter (who I will say in all honesty as someone who is not enthralled by small children is above-average cuteness) tottled towards in my direction and I moved aside as Bjork walked after her. I’m quite sure I will never be that close to her ever again and for Lee Anne’s first visit ever to New York for less than a week’s stay, seeing Bjork grocery shopping in New Jersey wasn’t something she could’ve thought would ever happen.

Then we went back to eating, feeling kind of uneasy. I poked at my katsu curry with my chopsticks. Lee Anne stared at her udon noodle soup. My mum probably thought we were really weird. We didn’t want to actually go into the shopping area knowing that Bjork was browsing around (and she was there for a while)

Lee Anne and I felt guilty about…something. About making a big deal out of Bjork going shopping for Japanese goods with her family (and then stupid people like me blogging it). We weren’t the only people that noticed but most seemed unaware of her presence. I can’t think of any other famous person that would make me quite that nervous.

You can listen to two new Royksopp tracks from their upcoming album at Robert Is A Damn Dirty Ape’s radio [from grinningtroll; scroll to the bottom for the album art]. I like “Only This Moment” more than “49%” so far, although a part of me is wondering “Wait, why do I like this at all?” I have no idea. I don’t listen to any other music that sounds like Royksopp’s but knowing it’s Royksopp makes it sound better…or something nonsensical like that. I got tickets for their show at Irving Plaza the other day so it better be good. YARRRH.

Oh, Royksopp’s Beck remix for “Missing” is awesome. I’ve found that I like a lot of the Guero remixes more than the originals. Is something wrong with that?

Anyone who uses livejournal probably knows about the plethora of ratings communities that exist. I’ve only seen ones that rated looks so far, but thatbandsucks is a music rating community. Actually, they say “This is not meant to be a rating community, just a music community with high standards.” …alright. I think that any community where members have to be voted in and tell people “yes” or “no” is somewhat of a rating community, but that’s just my opinion.

Like other ratings communities, reading the journal is like staring at a car accident. Full flames, smoke, sirens. Okay, maybe not that bad. Of course, I put myself up for ridicule by having a public blog but I figure that if you don’t like what I listen to, you won’t read my blog. This community is a bit painful to read but I did read quite a few entries. Damn, my life is a total waste. Some people seem to not like you if you don’t have a good racial mix in your list. Yes folks, I’m completely racist because I don’t listen to black artists. Or Asian artists. Or South American artists. Or old people. Or babies. Oh, full of hate, I am! (Is it a similar notion to ridicule someone for liking, say, only Japanese food but not American food? Or American Chinese food but not authentic Chinese food? Um. Damn, I’m talking about food again!)

I can’t think of five artists I hate/dislike. Or rather, I don’t care enough to think of five artists I don’t like. There are plenty of artists that just don’t “do it” for me, pretty much anything that doesn’t fit into the “stuff I like” category. I don’t care what music people don’t like (I guess it would make me sad to hear that peopel don’t like certain artists, but to each his own), I want to know what they do like.

Oh, there’s a certain type of music I most definitely hate: crappy ringtones. My phone just makes beepy noises when it rings. Is it just me or does 90% of the cell phone toting population set their phones to play annoying songs? WHY? WHY MUST YOU BE SO CRUEL? FOR GOD’S SAKE. I hate “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies” after having to hear my roommate’s cell phone-ified version innumerable times over the course of the past year. If you like crappy ringtones and use them on a regular basis, I kind of wish…bad things to happen to you. Or rather, your phone.

I’m procrastinating. Here’s my top 15 list in no particular order:

1. Beck
2. Radiohead
3. Bjork
4. Plone
5. Phonem
6. Magnet
7. Air
8. The Innocence Mission
9. Barbara Morgenstern
10. Sigur Ros
11. Interpol
12. Kings of Convenience
13. Franz Ferdinand
14. The Flaming Lips
15. Mew

Actually, that wasn’t really my top 15 list. 15 is too many. I don’t listen to that much music.

One of my friends once referred to Magnet as “TEH MAGNETZoRZ” and for some reason I thought that was hilarious. We are very silly.

Magnet’s new album is called The Tourniquet. OMG, NEW ALBUM! (Just a note, when I say “OMG” I’m kind of kidding. And kind of not.) My first thought was, “Does that imply massive pain?” Hope not. Or maybe…YES, I love depressing things! I do. You probably do also. YOU DO! Why I’m shouting, I don’t know. There are lots of depressing Magnet songs and it would make me ever so gleeful if he one day made a song about happy penguins just waddling around glaciers, sitting on eggs and puking out food for their babies or something.

Here are some live Magnet songs pulled from NRK’s Bergenfest radio broadcast:

Magnet - Duracellia [removed]
Magnet - On Your Side [removed]

I feel like his performances in the US have been better than the Norwegian ones I’ve heard. Then again, I’m biased. You can listen to some live US performances on KCRW and KEXP.

On a related note, a friend pointed out this article about the success of Norwegian artists outside of Norway. It’s in Norwegian so you probably won’t get much out of it but I tried to read it. I mean, “read” it. I’ve heard Maria Mena’s music but I wasn’t really into it. My brother used to listen to M2M (he likes female pop artists, yup). I like Jaga Jazzist (or is it now just plain Jaga?) but haven’t gotten any of their albums yet. I guess the most popular Norwegian artists over here that I like are King of Convenience, Royksopp, and Sondre Lerche. Has anyone noticed that they’re all on the same label? Holy jeebus. (If you live in NYC, you should go to Royksopp’s show at Irving Plaza on July 17th. Figuring that I’m going, it’ll be the first time I’ve been to Irving Plaza since the last time I saw Royksopp. How weird.)

Ahh, some other good artists: more people should listen to William Hut in my humble opinion. Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band play cool music and they seem to put on awesome performances but I haven’t gotten any of their albums yet (just an EP) and I most certainly haven’t been to any of their shows. I’ve liked the few songs I’ve heard by Bjorn Torske, but haven’t gotten any of his releases either. Kaptein Kaliber make music that I honestly don’t really know how to describe besides that it’s electronic, which is about as helpful as describing something as rock. Oh, they’re good too. I haven’t gotten into many Norwegian female artists (besides Annie) but maybe I just haven’t heard enough.

There’s lots of free music online. Some of it is even legal!

Bleep has free promo tracks under RIPNBURN. Yaaay, downloading fun. [From Disquiet.com, which has lots more downloading fun, which means I’m not going to get any work done tonight…]

I didn’t talk about Coachella at all. It kind of slipped my mind, to tell you the truth. Of course, I wouldn’t have minded going but there wasn’t one artist in particular I would have gladly chopped off an appendage (a minor appendage) to see. And I’d probably never go.

I’m mentioning it now because of Ice Cream Man’s Coachella Review. Food and music together, good lord. Ice cream is good. The site is cool and has lots of photos and reviews, but…

…ICE CREAM.

Actually, I don’t even like ice cream that much, but ice cream trucks make me happy. I think that instead of beer and other non-exciting substances, music venues should serve milkshakes, sundaes, and pancakes. I have yet to find anyone who wholeheartedly agrees with me on this idea, but come on! Shakes! Mm!

The end.

…oh wait, not the end. Check out the Make Your Own Coachella Blog Post [from Boing Boing]. I think this just applies to guys. Here’s my favorite part because I think I’ve read sentences like these on a number of occasions:

Speaking of religious experiences, I think I can die now. I FINALLY got to see New Order live. I’ve loved those guys since {I was a kid/I first heard The Killers/somebody told me I was supposed to} and needless to say, they didn’t disappoint. I left after their set because I had an early flight home. No worries, I heard that Bright Eyes {sucked/sucked/sucked} anyway. So whatever.

No mention of ice cream though. [sniff]